<p>Could current techers who have merit aid please :) share your
experience/insight on this aid related question:</p>
<p>In the past on CC, I have noted threads which have indicated that
if Need based aid offered is Y and Merit aid is X, and the educational
experience costs Z (all per year) the following happens....</p>
<p>X is applied towards Y first and anything in excess is then applied towards
Z. In any case the amount Caltech says is the family contribution does
not change unless there is an external scholarship outside the Caltech
merit aid scholarships (i.e outside of Lingle/Axline/President's).</p>
<p>Hi arwen,
congrats on your merit award...I did send you a separate message, but didn't hear back from you...Could you please tell us what kind of merit aid was it? Congrats being a med scholar.....The aid you got was only for med scholars? Please reply...</p>
<p>T.A.D, I should have replied earlier <em>--:o--</em> The merit aid was not
related to medical scholars. I am not a medical scholar but invited for
interviewing to be one by UCSD as part of the caltech-UCSD program. </p>
<p>fizix/someone else with one of the caltech merit aid scholarships
....the X,Y and Z discussion would be illuminative and very timely
for me, since I am hoping I am not right about this.</p>
<p>"Does anyone with merit aid who had no external scholarship and had
low EFC end up paying more than their EFC," is another way I could
have worded my question.</p>
<p>In the end that is what I am trying to find out.</p>
<p>yes, anotherparent, I have called a couple of times about the overall
package.</p>
<p>The most recent time I called the financial aid office said that it will be
later in the month before the overall packages are available. The prelimianry
aid review was sent by them in late December. The merit aid (which is just a
letter via fedex,no numbers, came more recently).</p>
<p>.... yes, I can wait till then. CC has been so helpful in the past (heck
I would not even have applied to Caltech EA but for encouragement on this
forum back in Summer) I thought some techers would share their insights.</p>
<p>Sorry, but most of us don't have insights on the subject, because we don't have merit aid from Caltech - we're not just ignoring you. Congrats though...</p>
<p>Thanks phlogiston:). I found this elsewhere on CC. Also, I am plannign on being at an alumni reception where I could get some light thrown on it possibly...</p>